Page 32 of Dark Endures

“I’m not heading to foreign countries to get my head blown off.”

“Noted.” And now I need to figure out what to do with a punk kid who’s smarter than I am.

Too Much

Mindy

“What do you think of these for the bachelorette?” Dahlia holds up a magazine.

“They look amazing.” I try to hold back a yawn. It’s been a long few weeks. My bank account loves it. My body not so much.

Get into the game. Your friend is excited about her upcoming wedding. “How are you blending the guys and the girls together?”

She shrugs. “Maverick just wants to stay with me the whole time. I’m thinking we just do dinner and a theatre show on Saturday evening. But all of that doesn’t sound exciting. What would you do?”

Me? How would I know? I’ve only ever thought about marriage in a theoretical sense. “Um. I don’t know. Probably something silly, like a bar crawl with funny dares.”

Dahlia’s eyes light up. “That sounds like fun. It would kill Maverick’s brain.”

More like he’d kill someone for looking at his wife.

“Hey.” Adonis walks up.

And my mind turns to mush. Beautiful. He’s truly beautiful. It’s got to be a boss thing messing with my mind because Maddox makes me feel giddy inside. The knowledge that these men are completely off-limits makes them sexy.

“Are you two coming to dinner tonight?”

No. But I dream of going occasionally. Then I realized that I’d make a fool of myself and go dancing instead. “Sorry, Dahlia and I have plans.” Well, more like Dahlia, Maverick, and I have plans. But who cares about being the third wheel when I get free access to Maverick’s club? I’ll dance, drink, and forget all my problems for a little while.

At least until I have to go to work tonight.

But now isn’t the time to worry about work. There’ll be enough of that later while I’m trying to stay awake on the cab ride back to my apartment.

***

Time for fun!!! I log out of the call system and grab my bag.

“Mindy, can I talk to you for a moment?” Adonis approaches my desk like he was waiting for me.

Am I in trouble? There’s nothing that comes to mind in the last few weeks. I haven’t been late once, even though pulling myself out of bed hasn’t been easy. “Sure.”

He closes the door to his office as soon as we’re inside. “I’m concerned about Dahlia.”

Huh? Dahlia? She’s literally beaming with joy. “Why?”

“After that stalker caused her to have a breakdown, she’s been pulling away. Not doing anything with people at work.”

That was hard on her. Adonis is such a wonderful boss.

“I’d like for you to encourage her to start doing more work events. She needs to be able to rely on us for her mental health.”

Is she masking pain that I’m not noticing? A therapist would have a field day with me right now.

“Can I rely on you to help?”

Before or after, I melt inside at your thoughtfulness. “Of course.” It’s definitely the untouchable kind boss thing that gets me every time.

***

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